Posts Tagged ‘Kia Race to the MVP Ladder’

April 18, 2014 · 12:57 PM ET

By Sekou Smith, NBA.com

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — Kevin Durant really was tired of being No. 2, finishing second, being a groomsman and never the … you get where this is going.

When the Oklahoma City Thunder star declared earlier this season that he was tired of leading a life filled with being second best, dating as far back to his prep days to Draft night and all the way through his first six seasons in the NBA, he meant every word.

Once the ballots come in for the KIA MVP Award, Durant should finally be able to shed that No. 2 label. He’s already achieved as much in our eyes, topping reigning back-to-back and four-time MVP LeBron James and the rest of a star-studded field for the No. 1 spot on the KIA Race to the MVP Ladder.

Durant has already claimed his fourth scoring title in just seven NBA seasons. But has he played his way into that intergalactic category with some of the other universal superstars — James, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, Dwyane Wade, Tony Parker and Kevin Garnett rank among the active MVP or Finals MVPs still in business today?

Could be. He certainly has all of the credentials necessary for inclusion … well, everything but the official word that he is the most valuable player in the NBA. And even that might not be enough validation for Durant, who holds himself to a championship standard.

NBA TV research ace Kevin Cottrell agrees that Durant has only finished half the battle, provided he walks off with KIA MVP honors. Oh yes, there’s definitely more to be done this season …

Spoiler alert: Kevin Durant will win his first ever Most Valuable Player award.

Durant is average career highs in points (32.0) and assists (5.5) while shooting 50.5% from the field. K.D. winning the award may come as no surprise but the odds of him doing so in route to winning a title may shock you.

Since the inception of the MVP award (1955-56), the hardware has been handed out 57 times. There have been 36 players to win the award however only seven first time MVP winners went on to win a title in the same season.

​Surely Durant can make it eight but it’s been 20 years since we’ve last seen it done. The 1993-94 award went to Houston Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon after which he led them to their first of two NBA titles. According to Elias Sports Bureau, the other six players to join Olajuwon in this feat are no doubt Hall-of-Famers (as seen below) but there are many other legends that didn’t make the cut.

​Keep in mind 5-time MVP Michael Jordan was occupied with batting cages when Olajuwon won in 1994. As for Durant, former MVPs Tim Duncan and LeBron James still stands in his way.

Consider this, despite the greatness of Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Julius Erving, Jordan, Duncan and James, none of those luminaries were able to win a title the same year they captured their first MVP award.

​There’s so much energy exerted throughout an 82-game season, one can only imagine how tough it would be for a player to win the MVP award for the first time and have enough left for the post season. The edge for Durant may be his 2012 Finals appearance, which resulted in disappointment and ultimately the fuel needed to elevate his game to another level.

​Let me be the first to congratulate Durant and lead the applause on becoming the 37th different player to be named League MVP. It truly is an honor.

So prepare for your twitter mentions to hit a new high.

However, if @KDtrey5 can find a way to become the eighth player to win his first MVP award and a title in the same season, his mentions will far surpass social media.

March 28, 2014 · 11:05 AM ET

By Sekou Smith, NBA.com

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — Admit it, you doubted Blake Griffin would get here. You didn’t think he’d improve this much in such a relatively short period of time.

Seriously, it’s okay to fess up now.

Because Griffin is real. The hype is justified. He’s more than just a pitch man and a walking, talking and dunking highlight reel waiting to happen. Griffin is a legitimate MVP candidate and the clear-cut No. 3 (in a two-man race) behind Kevin Durant and LeBron James.

Griffin has separated himself from the rest of the pack outside of the top three of the KIA Race to the MVP Ladder. It’s been a season-long labor of love for Griffin, whose own coach Doc Rivers, as well as others like Dallas Mavericks boss Rick Carlisle, can’t say enough about Griffin’s hard work and dedication paying off the way it has this season for a Los Angeles Clippers team that is in thick of things in the Western Conference playoff chase.

Joakim Noah and James Harden round out the top five of the Ladder this week.

Dive in here for more on who made the cut on this week’s KIA Race To The MVP Ladder!

March 21, 2014 · 11:42 AM ET

By Sekou Smith, NBA.com

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — Moses Malone?

To most players currently collecting NBA paychecks that name evokes memories of one of the game’s all-time greats, but a face many of the league’s young stars might not recognize. That’s not the case for Charlotte Bobcats center Al Jefferson, captain old school himself, who fashions his pristine low-post game after the great Moses, who put on big man clinics on a nightly basis during a career that included his ABA days and his time in the NBA.

Jefferson is bringing old school back today on the KIA Race to the MVP Ladder. The Bobcats big man joins the party this week at No. 9, and truth be told has been knocking on the door for weeks now. Not only is he leading the Bobcats’ march to the playoffs, he’s doing it with a style that has been lost among today’s generation of big men who prefer stretching their shooting range out beyond the 3-point line rather than mastering a two or three pet moves around the basket.

Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Blake Griffin, Joakim Noah and James Harden comprise the top five of the Ladder this week.

Dive in here for more on who made the cut on this week’s KIA Race To The MVP Ladder!

Oklahoma City Thunder scoring ace Kevin Durant has done it twice … in the past four seasons.

He’s on the elite streak scoring list that also includes Michael Jordan (40 straight in 1986), Spencer Haywood (31 straight in 1972), Bob McAdoo (29 straight in 1974) and Oscar Robertson (29 straight in 1964). Scoring isn’t the only thing that helps a player built his MVP case, but scoring at a transcendent clip certainly strengthens one’s case.

Durant’s all-time great scoring ability and his better-by-the-day all-around game has propelled him back to the top of the KIA Race to the MVP Ladder this week … and perhaps for good, if he keeps this up.

LeBron James, Blake Griffin, Joakim Noah and James Harden round out the top five of the Ladder this week.

Dive in here for more on who made the cut on this week’s KIA Race To The MVP Ladder!

And it’s at the finish where this race will be decided. It’s that close between two of the league’s truly elite, transcendent talents. They are essentially deadlocked at the top of this week’s KIA Race to the MVP Ladder … LeBron has the slightest of edges thanks to that career-high and franchise-record 61 points he scored Monday night in a win over Charlotte.

Blake Griffin, James Harden and Paul George round out the top five of the Ladder this week with the Big Fundamental himself, Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs, joining the party at No. 10.

Dive in here for more on who made the cut on this week’s KIA Race To The MVP Ladder!

James has lifted the Heat back up the past month and put them right back into position as the best team in the league, the records say otherwise but we all know the Heat would be favored against anyone in a best-of-7 series if we started the postseason right now. James also holds on to the top spot in the KIA Race to the MVP Ladder this week, his jaw-dropping work all month punctuated by a wicked performance in the mask Thursday night against the New York Knicks on TNT.

Shaquille O’Neal (in 2003) and Wilt Chamberlain (in 1966) are the only players to put together a month worth of work like LeBron has produced for the Heat (30 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists and shooting better than 57 percent for a calendar month), winners of six straight games. That’s elite historical company by any measure.

Kevin Durant,Blake Griffin, Paul George and Steph Curry round out the top five of the Ladder this week with Kevin Love of the Minnesota Timberwolves joining the party at No. 9.

Dive in here for more on who made the cut on this week’s KIA Race To The MVP Ladder!

James powered through Serge Ibaka‘s left arm for the final two of his game-high 33 points (in 33 minutes, he also scored his team’s first 12, too) in the Miami Heat’s win over the Oklahoma City Thunder Thursday night on TNT. He’s ready to go through Kevin Durant as well, if need be, to reclaim his perch atop the KIA Race to the MVP Ladder.

He assumed the top spot this week, the culmination of a four-game stretch that has seen him average 37 points on better than 60 percent shooting as the Heat, winners of four straight and eight of their last 10 games, close in on the Indiana Pacers and that top spot in the Eastern Conference standings.

Bloody nose or not, LeBron continues to remind us that he’s the most powerful force in the league when he’s at the top of his game … #BaneJames as he coined it on Instagram:

The man NBA TV’s Dennis Scott likes to call “Spicy” Curry has been hot even when the Warriors go cold, piling up 14 games in which he has scored 30 or more points. He had 12 all of last season. And there is no All-Star snub to speak of this season with Curry voted in by the fans, rightfully so, as a starter on the Western Conference team. He’s also featured prominently, as he has been all season, on the KIA Race to the MVP Ladder.

January 31, 2014 · 12:18 PM ET

Snubbed, some would say, as an All-Star when the Western Conference reserves were announced Thursday night on TNT, Dragic made the cut this week on the KIA Race to the MVP Ladder, trying to muscle his way in on the spotlight being hogged right now by Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Kevin Durant, who is a clear-cut No. 1 on the list.

LeBron James, LaMarcus Aldridge, Paul George and Blake Griffin round out the top five of the Ladder this week Dragic is the only player on the list who was not voted in to one of the All-Star teams.

Dive in here for more on who made the cut on this week’s KIA Race To The MVP Ladder!

January 24, 2014 · 12:38 PM ET

If Kevin Durant keeps it up, someone better find that checkered flag because no one will catch the Oklahoma City Thunder star on the KIA Race to the MVP Ladder. And that includes Miami Heat star LeBron James, who like the rest of us has admitted to marveling at Durant’s exploits this season.

Durant has already established himself as the most diabolical scorer of his generation, an absolute assassin capable of destroying opposing defenses from basically anywhere on the floor. But his current run of nine straight games with at least 30 points, not to mention his preposterous 37.0 scoring average for the month of January, has helped vault him into the all-time great category alongside the likes of James, Kobe Bryant, Kareem Abdul- Jabbar, Nate Archibald and Oscar Robertson.

His coach, Scott Brooks, has even crossed sporting lines by comparing him to an all-time great from the NFL.

“Kevin Durant, Peyton Manning,” Brooks said Tuesday night. “You just look at the parallels between the two. They just come in, they do their job every day. They don’t have to tell the world what they do, they just do it every day and it seems to work perfectly fine.”

It certainly does!

Dive in here for more on who made the cut on this week’s KIA Race To The MVP Ladder!